THE TOWERS FAMILY SAGA
        Episode 75
The wind picked up, swirling
the orange dust into tiny
funnels across the flats.
Robert stood by the hinges,
watching the sunset bleed
into a deep, bruised purple.
He could feel the eyes of
the desert on his back.
The discovery of the cache
had changed the frequency
of the afternoon silence.
Minnie came out with a
lamp and set it on the
folding metal workbench.
"You’re waiting for him,"
she said, her voice steady
against the rising gale.
"The man in the black car."
Robert didn't turn around.
"He wants the blueprints."
"He thinks the old dreams
of the titan still live
inside those rusted boxes."
Virginia and Dorothy were
inside the library unit,
locking the heavy shutters.
"The perimeter is clear,"
Virginia called out, her
medical kit over her arm.
"But there’s a signal on
the radio frequency, Dad."
"Someone is pining the
old Marine FDC bands."
Robert felt a shiver of
recognition in his soul.
Only someone from the old
inner circle knew those
private, tactical codes.
"They aren't just investors,"
Robert whispered to Minnie.
"They are the survivors."
Shirley ran to the front,
her tablet screen glowing
with a heat-map overlay.
"Someone is moving on
the ridge, three hundred
yards from the cache!"
"They have a drone in the
air, and it’s headed here!"
Barbara pulled her car
across the access road,
blocking the main path.
The family formed a tight
circle around the iron
home they had built.
"We aren't giving up the
ridge," Barbara shouted
over the drone’s hum.
The radical honesty was
now a tactical position.
They didn't have to lie
about what they defended.
They were defending the
future of the canyon.
Robert stepped into the
light of the lamp, his
face etched in shadow.
"Show yourself!" he
bellowed into the dark.
The drone hovered, its
red eye blinking like a
malicious little star.
A voice crackled from a
hidden speaker on the
folding unit’s roof.
"The past isn't a ledger
you can just burn, Rob."
"It’s a map to the gold."
Minnie grabbed a heavy
iron wrench from the bench.
"Then you’ll have to dig
through us to find it."
The saga was no longer
about building a library.
It was about a siege.
The Towers were ready.
The desert went cold.
The first shot was a
flash of light in the
black canyon night.

  My books and screenplays:
 www.boomlakeproductions.com
    Turquoise Software
    solartoys@yahoo.com